Thanks kaku!
(In Win 901) Asteria II: Rearmoured
- Thread starter LePhuronn
- Start date
Teaser
Well Cenedd, it's begun.
Bad, bad quick phone pic of the first of 3 super integral bends in this project. That's the start of the midplate with the 360 rad bolted to it.
I've trashed all my backup pieces for this with various bending issues, and now I have to literally throw out all the intricate measurements and drawings and remeasure this on the fly for bending. I have no tolerances to make this work.
Really scared
...Looking forward to seeing it after tab A goes into slot B.
Well Cenedd, it's begun.
Bad, bad quick phone pic of the first of 3 super integral bends in this project. That's the start of the midplate with the 360 rad bolted to it.
I've trashed all my backup pieces for this with various bending issues, and now I have to literally throw out all the intricate measurements and drawings and remeasure this on the fly for bending. I have no tolerances to make this work.
Really scared
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Soldato
Well then, in true flat pack tradition, it's about that time where you find either that you have screws missing or some mysterious extra ones that make you think you've gone wrong somewhere!
Looking good so far. Bend looks sharp and clean.
Looking good so far. Bend looks sharp and clean.
If only they were sharper
I did a bit of research on various aluminium grades for their cold forming and bending ability and I was reliably informed that 1050 aluminium at 1.5mm thick essentially didn't have an inner bend radius to worry about. So everything was drawn up based on that (with a tiny bit of leeway).
Oh no, of course not. The wider pieces, such as that midplate area, fold with a 1mm inner radius, any of the thinner bits will fold with a 0.5mm inner radius. That's quite a lot of difference when you need millimeter precision - if I'm out on the midplate then it won't fit in the case or the radiator is in the wrong place, if I'm out on the next 2 folds then the PSU won't fit.
So yeah, remeasuring on the fly now that I know what bend radius I have to deal with, and I have no spare midplates!
Soldato
Sounds like you're going to have fun then. Good luck!
Worst case, Dremel and tungsten carbide bit to turn mounting holes into slots for adjustability?
Worst case, Dremel and tungsten carbide bit to turn mounting holes into slots for adjustability?
Worst case I redraw everything to incorporate the bend radii (there are a few things I wouldn't mind changing in retrospect) and get it recut - Congleton Engineering were ridiculously good value.
Worse worst case scenario is I sack off the idea of matching the look and structure of a stock 901 and don't fold. Go down the modding cube or angle extrusion route.
Worse worst case scenario is I sack off the idea of matching the look and structure of a stock 901 and don't fold. Go down the modding cube or angle extrusion route.
A little teaser...
My bend radii are larger than I expected, so it's thrown some measurements off between 1-2mm (some not an issue, some critical) but it's getting there. These are the 2 essential (and scary) pieces.
I'll present properly soon
My bend radii are larger than I expected, so it's thrown some measurements off between 1-2mm (some not an issue, some critical) but it's getting there. These are the 2 essential (and scary) pieces.
I'll present properly soon
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Soldato
Well it's all looking very OEM so far....in a good way I mean
Well it's all looking very OEM so far....in a good way I mean
Cheers dude, that's been the plan all along
almost a surprise when you take the glass off and see how things have changed inside.Couldn't even begin to imagine the amount of work that has gone into that, it's taking 'custom build' to a whole new level! Looking very impressive so far though, can't wait to see it built up with components going in
Many thanks
I'll go into a bit more detail when I get all the structural stuff done and cleaned up and do a proper walkthrough, but we're looking at 6 months of measuring, Photoshop design, move to Illustrator for mm precision and then reworks after the fact.
It's a shame the advice on bending radius for this particular gauge of aluminium was incorrect because that lower "L" piece was designed to be 1mm accurate around the radiator, but the bend radius has shunted the verticals up by 1.5-2mm so now the rad + fans + gasket is too tall and I need to manually chop up lovely laser cuts
And I don't have a spare
Good to have you on board
OJ46, this one's for you:
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Nor me! I'm sick of seeing it only when my eyes are closed!
Long way to go yet, stick with me.
Seriously impressive mate. Got a headache trying to figure all that out from the finished design, never mind designing it from scratch & figuring out bend radius' etc
You're certainly braver than me though, designing a very expensive jigsaw where if one piece is a couple mill out the entire jigsaw is buggered... Making me look like a right pansy getting nervous when I cut holes in a Parvum
You're certainly braver than me though, designing a very expensive jigsaw where if one piece is a couple mill out the entire jigsaw is buggered... Making me look like a right pansy getting nervous when I cut holes in a Parvum
Soldato
I can't see where the dowels and those irritating spinny cam discs go....must be really good flat-pack! 
Certainly looks like it'll be good once you've sworn at it enough!
Certainly looks like it'll be good once you've sworn at it enough!
Quite a few pictures to share with you in my latest update, unfortunately my phone's on the blink so most of these aren't the greatest. Hopefully they'll still give a nice taste of how things are going.
Although I'm rebuilding most of the 901's internals, there are a few holes and cuts needed on the bits I'm keeping, and some of them can only be done once the Titan is in place. So I thought I'd best get on with it and block up my very first GPU
She has to come out of her existing home first, so allow me to introduce you to Asteria:
My trusty Silverstone SG05 with a minor mod to fit a 10.5 inch GPU inside a 9.5 inch case, Corsair H60 cooler and 2 SSDs hidden underneath the PSU.
Here's the old girl, still going strong.
Big deep breath, here we go...
The Nvidia TIM masters were rather sensible when they built Asteria, it seems. Nothing flooding everything, and still quite fluid too surprisingly.
Easy to clean up then
My very first obligatory naked board pr0n shots
(between little space and a dodgy phone, I couldn't do anything arty with the super-shiny die, so that's just me giving the thumbs up
)Time to block up then!
I was expecting mating a Watercool GPU block to an EK backplate to be a nightmare, and my planning and cosmetic work to be all for naught. But it was bang on first time.
I couldn't get any decent pictures, but essentially it's just screws anyway so hardly exciting. The planning stages were working out which screws were unique to the GPU block and which were shared with the backplate, and in turn what the screw lengths would be given Watercool and EK do things differently.
So we ended up with 7 M3x8mm dome head screws to fix the block around the GPU, which were shallow enough in head size not to interfere with the spacing on the backplate. We then had 4 M3x12mm countersunk screws to mate the backplate with the remaining 4 holes in the block. Add 2 M3x5mm at the very edge of the PCB to secure the backplate and we're all done.
And here we are!
Now that I know the mating works and is secure I'm going to polish up those backplate screws a little to try and match the brushed aluminium, but for now it looks magic I think.
Apologies again for most of the pics being shoddy, I'll be having a clean up soon so fingers-crossed I can get this DSLR working properly and get that damn backdrop free of creases
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Of course, I couldn't leave it there. I had to see what the completed motherboard would look like:
It's exactly what's been stuck in my head for 6 months. Some little touch-ups here and there to come later (polished backplate screws, removing the green PCB on the titan, slightly redesigned I/O shroud, etc.) but right now I'm really pleased with how it's turned out.
And still haven't actually measured the case bits for drilling
It's exactly what's been stuck in my head for 6 months. Some little touch-ups here and there to come later (polished backplate screws, removing the green PCB on the titan, slightly redesigned I/O shroud, etc.) but right now I'm really pleased with how it's turned out.
And still haven't actually measured the case bits for drilling
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Soldato
Pics look very good for a phone.
I hate to disagree, but it's more backplate pr0n than naked GPU pr0n!
Last set presumably are Asteria's [Emperor's] New Clothes!
I hate to disagree, but it's more backplate pr0n than naked GPU pr0n!
Last set presumably are Asteria's [Emperor's] New Clothes!